Process for preparing a snack food product

ABSTRACT

A snack food product comprising popped popcorn in a dough matrix containing flours and starch. The snack food product preferably contains comminuted popcorn in a cooked dough matrix of tapioca flour, corn flour and potato starch, and is deep fat fried. The process for preparing the product is also described.

United States Patent Rispoli et al. March 6, 1973 PROCESS FOR PREPARINGA SNACK [56] References Cited FOOD PRODUCT UNITED STATES PATENTS [75]Inventors: Joseph M. Rispoli, Douglaston;

Anthony C. capossela, Jr. North Gerkens Tmytown, both 3,174,864 3/1965Schiebel ...99/1 3,259,503 7/1966 Tan et al. ..99/83 [73] Assignee:General Foods Corporation, White Plains, Primary Examiner-Raymond N.Jones [22] Filed: Oct 7, 1968' Attorney-Thomas V. Sullivan and Bruno P.Struzzi [21] Appl. No.: 765,679 [57] ABSTRACT A snack food productcomprising popped popcorn in [52] U.S. Cl ..,99/83 a dough matrixcontaining flours and starch. The snack food product preferably containscomminuted [51] Int. Cl. .QA23ll/l0 popcorn in a cooked dough matrix oftapioca flour, corn flour and potato starch, and is deep fat fried. The[58] Field oi Search... 99]83, 80, 81 process for preparing the productis also described.

5 Claims, No Drawings PROCESS FOR PREPARING A SNACK FOOD PRODUCT BRIEFSUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Recently, snack food products of many typeshave become widely available. Such products include chips puffs, andcracker-type snacks. In chips and puffs, such as potato or potato-basedchips, corn chips and corn puffs, foodstuff inserts are usually notincluded. On the other hand, with cracker-type snacks, foodstuffs suchas vegetable, meat and/or cheese pieces, may be incorporated therein.

More recently, however, the inclusion of foodstuff inserts in chips andpuffs has been described. Thus, Schiebel, U.S. Pat. No. 3,174,864,discloses a snack food containing popcorn in a carbohydrate base, andTan et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,259,503, teach a snack product in which aforeign food adjunct, such as nuts, fruits, vegetables and the like, isincorporated in a doughy substrate.

Although the snack products of Schiebel and of Tan et al. represent adifferent approach in the manufacture of snacks which theretofore wasconcerned with the production of generally non-heterogeneous products,typically potato chips, corn chips and corn puffs, such products possessflavor, texture and appearance characteristics which are markedlydistinct from those of the snack food product of this invention.

It is an object of this invention to provide a snack food productcomprising popped popcorn in a dough matrix containing flours andstarch.

It is a further object of this invention to produce a novel snack foodproduct comprising comminuted popped corn in a cooked dough matrixcontaining a combination of flours and starch.

Another object of this invention is to prepare a deep fat fried snackfood product comprising comminuted popped popcorn in a cooked doughmatrix containing flours and starch in which the ingredients of theproduct are present in specificallydefined amounts with the result thata product having unique flavor, texture and appearance, is obtained.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a process formaking a novel snack food product.

The foregoing objects and others are realized by employing a doughmatrix containing a combination of flours and starch so as to result ina novel snack food product having therein popped popcorn.

The popped popcorn may be whole or comminuted, and while mixtures ofvarious flours may be utilized, tapioca flour and corn flour arepreferred. Similarly, although edible starches of many types may beused, potato starch is preferred. The dough matrix is preferably cookedbefore the popped popcorn is admixed therewith and the ratio of thepopped popcorn to the matrix on a dry weight basis may range from about1 to l to 3 to 1. Following incorporation of the popped popcorn in thecooked dough matrix, the mixture is shaped and formed, cooled and dried.The dried product may be shipped and stored in such form for subsequentfinal cooking. Alternatively, the dried product may be cooked as thefinal step of the process by immersing it in hot oil using conventionaldeep fat frying techniques.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION As indicated hereinbefore, thedough matrix of the snack food product of this invention contains amixture of flours and starch. Although flours obtained from a variety ofcereals, grains and tubers, may be readily employed, it has been foundthat the combination of tapioca flour and corn flour provide a snackfood product with very desirable flavor, texture and appearancecharacteristics. Thus, while flours such as rice, oat, wheat and thelike may be used in minor amounts, it has been found that tapioca flourresults in good texture in the final product and has the advantage ofpermitting 'puffing during deep fat frying which is also advantageous.Moreover, because of its bland flavor, tapioca flour generally does notmask the flavor impact of the other principal ingredients of the snackfood product. The use of corn flour is advantageous in that sincepopcorn is an essential ingredient of the snack food product, corn flourprovides, together with popcorn, an overall predominating corn flavorand texture. Although corn puff and corn chips are wellknown, suchproducts are usually prepared from corn grits and/or corn masa flourwhich, while they may be used in minor amounts in the matrix of thesnack food product of this invention, are not as essential as cornflour. Further, even though it is possible to employ any one or more ofa large number of food starches, such as waxy maize, corn, rice, tapiocaand the like, it has been surprisingly found that potato starch, moreparticular a pregelatinized potato starch, provides extremely desirablecharacteristics in the snack food product.

In making the dough matrix, it has been found advantageous to employ thepreferred combination of starches and flours within a certain range.Thus, the use of a ratio of l to l to l of tapioca flour to corn flourto potato starch has been noted to furnish very desirable flavor,texture and appearance characteristics in the final snack food product.

Popped popcorn may be incorporated into the dough matrix, preferablyafter the matrix has been cooked to gelatinization temperatures. Thepopcorn may be either whole or comminuted, that is, discrete explodedkernels may be used or popcorn which has been chopped, sliced, ground orotherwise subdivided, may be employed. It has been found advantageous touse a ratio of popped popcorn to dough matrix ranging from about 1 to lto 3 to 1, preferably 2 to l, on a dry weight basis. It appears thatwith lower ratios of popped popcorn to dough matrix, fat pickup duringfinal processing, e.g., in deep fat frying, may be excessive. The use ofcomminuted popped popcorn is especially desirable since the final snackproduct is seen to be somewhat less fragile and in-processingdifficulties are avoided because of the higher density of the comminutedpopped popcorn.

In making the dough matrix, the ingredients of flours and starch arepreblended and then introduced to a suitable cooking vessel containingwater. The preblend may contain other ingredients such as salt and otherflavor adjuncts, but it is obvious that such ingredients may beincorporated into the cooking water. The cooking of the mixture of theingredients can be accomplished by any one of a number of known cookingmethods. For example, batch continuous processing of the dough may beresorted to. Generally, the amount of water employed in cooking of thedough would be from 1 to l to 4 to 1 parts per parts of preblendedingredients. Cooking is carried out at temperatures of about 170 to200F. for a period of 5 to 60 minutes. Following cooking of the dough,popped popcorn is blended with the matrix and thoroughly distributedtherein.

Subsequently, the popcorn-containing cooked dough is then shaped andformed either into the general shape desired for the end product or intoa shape for permitting later additional shaping and forming. Thepopcorn-containing matrix may be extruded and sheeted, extruded andsliced, rolled into sheets and later cut and formed into desired shapessuch as chips or otherwise processed to permit ease in handling as wellas to. provide shapes of different kinds which would be desired for thefinal snack food product.

The shaped and formed mixture is then cooled and dried to a moisturecontent of about 8 to 12 percent. During this part of the process,conditioning and/or tempering of the dough matrix may take place but itis apparent that conditioning and/or tempering may be done prior toshaping and forming the popped popcorn-containing dough matrix.

The dried, shaped and formed intermediate product may then be shippedand storedas such. Alternatively, the final step of the process may becarried out by immersing the intermediate product in an edible hot oilfor brief periods of time to finish-cook and puff the product. The oiltemperature may range from 350 to 425F. and the time interval may rangefrom 5 to 45 seconds. Alternatively, roasting, fluidized bed, and othermethods of finish-cooking the product may be used. Generally, deep fatfrying is employed inasmuch as the flavor, texture and appearancecharacteristics appear to be very well developed with such technique.

Following deep fat frying, the snack food product, now having a moisturecontentof approximately 1 to 4 percent, is coated with salt or otherflavor adjuncts, such as spices, sauces, condiments and the like. Suchflavor adjuncts as well as foodstuff pieces may, however, also beblended into the dough matrix at the time the popcorn is incorporatedtherein.

In order to further illustrate the present invention, but in no way tolimit it, the following illustrative examples are given:

EXAMPLE 1 Ingredients, in parts by weight, and processing conditions fora snack food product containing whole popped popcorn are as follows:

Batch Percent Water is added to a Baker Perkins steam jacketed mixer andis brought to a boil. A dry-blended mixture of tapioca and corn flours,potato starch and salt is then added to the mixer and the mixture isgelatinized by cooking for approximately 5 minutes. The popped popcornis then slowly added to the cooked dough and blending is continued forapproximately 5 minutes. The popcorn-containing dough is then removedfrom the mixer and is extruded into one-fourth inch thick sheets in anAmbretti extruder. The sheets are then passed through rollers to obtainone-eighth inch thick flaked sheets which are subsequently air dried toa 10 percent moisture content. The dried flaked sheets are broken intostrips which are then deep fat fried in a hot (375F.) oil bath for about30 seconds until cooking and puffing are complete. The puffed snack foodproduct is removed from the bath,- cooled, dusted with salt andpackaged.

EXAMPLE II Ingredients expressed in pounds, and processing conditionsfor a snack food product containing comminuted popped popcorn are asfollows: I

A. Corn is popped in electric corn poppers The corn enters at 12 percentmoisture and is 4 percent after popping. The bulk density of the popcornis 1.37 lbs./cu. ft. The popcorn is then screened to removeall unpoppedkernels in a vibratory separator on a 2 mesh screen. About 7 lbs./hr.are removed and 68 lbs/hr. of popcorn are passed on. The popcorn issubsequently passed through a disintegra'tor using a three-eighths inchscreen, and collected. 7

. B. Dry ingredients for the matrix-tapioca flour, corn flour,pregelatinized potato starch and salt in 1 to 1 to l to 0.4 ratio-arepreblended in a ribbon blender for 25 minutes. Forty pounds ofthepreblended flours,-

starch and salt are mixed with 94 pounds of cold water in a steamjacketed kettle with side scrapper agitation. The matrix slurry isheated to 190F. with constant agitation. The time required for heatingis 30 minutes.

C. A 25 gallon Sigma Mixer is used to blend the matrix and and popcorn,59.5 lbs. of popcorn is fed through a hopper to the 114 lbs. of matrixuntil all is added and well mixed. Approximately 20 minutes mixing isrequired. The popcorn-containing dough V is removed from the mixer and170 lbs. of dough at 46 percent [-1 0 is then ready for extrusion.

D. The extruder is a twin auger type which has a capacity of 250'1,440lbs/hr. and a die with a lie-inch circular opening with a three-fourthsinch land. The extruded ropes are cut for tempering. The exit moistureis 45 percent for the 168 lbs. of ropes. i

E. The ropes are placed on trays holding 13 lbs. each and tempered atF./50 percent R.H.for 18-24 hrs.

F. The tempered ropes at approximately 42 percent H O are fed onto athree-bladed slicer with asetting of 0.054 inch.

G. The slices are then passed onto a vibratory screen with a 1 inch meshto remove all brokens and fines. About 7 lbs. are lost from the slicingand screening operation. a

H. One hundred fifty two lbs. of slices at 42 percent H O are fed via apartitioned conveyor into a 5 tiered belt dryer. The total drying timeis 2% hrs. and the drying temperature is 1-10-1 15F. The chips leave at10 percent H O at a total weight of 75 lbs. from the original batch.They are placed in drums to await frying or shipment.

l. The sliced and dried chips are fried in an edible oil at atemperature of 375F. for 25 seconds in a commercial fryer.

J. The fried chips are drained and are at about 2 percent moisture. Theyare placed in a rotating drum and coated with 1.6 percent surface saltby weight.

While the foregoing invention has been described in conjunction withcertain preferred embodiments, ingredients and processing conditions, itis apparent that a number of modifications may be made without departingfrom the spirit and scope of this invention as defined in the appendingclaims.

We claim:

1. A process for preparing a snack food product which comprises making adough mixture containing starch and a mixture of flours, cooking saidmixture to gelatinize the same, adding popped popcorn to said cookeddough mixture, shaping and forming the popped popcom-containing cookeddough mixture, cooling and drying said shaped and formed mixture to amoisture content of about 8 to 12 percent, said popped popcorn added ata level such that the ratio of popped popcorn to the cooked doughmixture is about 1 to l to 3 to l, by weight.

2. A process as in claim 1 in which shaping and forming are carried outby extruding and sheeting the popcorn-containing cooked dough mixture.

3. A process as in claim 1 in which shaping and forming are carried outby extruding and slicing the popcorn-containing cooked dough mixture.

4. A process as in claim 2 in which the popped popcorn is comminuted.

5. A process as in claim 2 further comprising deep fat 5 frying saidshaped, dried mixture.

1. A process for preparing a snack food product which comprises making adough mixture containing starch and a mixture of flours, cooking saidmixture to gelatinize the same, adding popped popcorn to said cookeddough mixture, shaping and forming the popped popcorn-containing cookeddough mixture, cooling and drying said shaped and formed mixture to amoisture content of about 8 to 12 percent, said popped popcorn added ata level such that the ratio of popped popcorn to the cooked doughmixture is about 1 to 1 to 3 to 1, by weight.
 2. A process as in claim 1in which shaping and forming are carried out by extruding and sheetingthe popcorn-containing cooked dough mixture.
 3. A process as in claim 1in which shaping and forming are carried out by extruding and slicingthe popcorn-containing cooked dough mixture.
 4. A process as in claim 2in which the popped popcorn is comminuted.